Amid the swirl of delirium and chaos following Everton’s 2-2 draw against Liverpool in February, one player embarked on an individual lap of honour.
Beto scored the opening goal of the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park and an upturn in form under the returning David Moyes imbued the striker with fresh confidence.
“To tell you the truth,” says Beto, “I had thought the derby was just (another) game. But within the club, people like Seamus (Coleman) and Tony, the kit man, were saying, ‘You guys need to beat them’.
“Playing in that game, I fully understood this. I was like, ‘Wow, this is really good’; the tackles, they go strong, we go strong, they give it to me and I give it to them. I love this — the battle. Now the derby is in my blood. I don’t want to lose any game, but that game — I really don’t want to lose it.”
Undefeated in 16 of their final 19 top-flight matches under Moyes last season, Everton owed much to Beto, the 6ft 4in (193cm) forward who had toiled during his first 16 months at the club.
Signed under Sean Dyche for an initial fee of £21.5million ($28.5m) in August 2023, Beto scored three Premier League goals in his first season, and he had only one to his name in his second when Moyes took over in January.
The 27-year-old says he was on the brink of a move to Italy — only for an injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the win at Brighton on January 25 to force Everton to keep him. From there, Beto scored crucial goals against Leicester City, Liverpool, Crystal Palace and Manchester United as Everton soared to safety. The striker, who Moyes describes as “rough and raucous”, transformed himself into a cult hero.
Speaking to The Athletic in a hotel lobby during Everton’s pre-season tour in New York City, Beto reflects, in absorbing detail, on a life and career that has taken him from playing in car parks on the outskirts of Lisbon, via a job at fast-food chain KFC, to a striker in the most competitive league in world football.
Beto celebrates his Merseyside derby goal with team-mates in February (Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Beto grew up in the coastal municipality of Cascais, around half an hour’s drive from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. He describes growing up in a “project” neighbourhood — essentially a form of social housing. “I liked it a lot,” he says. “We didn’t have much; we didn’t have parks or football pitches, but we played two-vs-two, or three-vs-three games in car parks.”
He wanted to play locally for a club team as a child, but the costs to register stretched the family’s budget. “For Mum (Filomena), we didn’t have so much money to spend on extra activities. For Mum, football was just a side activity. She preferred school, school, school.”
Beto, a Guinea-Bissau international, played football at break time and realised, despite his lack of practice, that his level was higher than many of his peers. His mum relented at the age of nine and he started to play at the weekends.
At home, access to the internet and satellite television was rare, meaning he watched very little football. “One day, we were choosing the number of the jersey on my shirt and I didn’t have any role model in football to refer to.
“They said, ‘Oh, you’re a striker, you need to wear the No 9 like Samuel Eto’o’. I said, ‘I don’t know (who) Eto’o (is), but, OK, I can be No 9’.”
That summer, in 2009, Barcelona played the Champions League final against Man United, and Eto’o scored.
“My friend’s family lived on the ground floor of my building and had television access. I was by the window outside watching the game. I saw the goal and Eto’o’s celebration and thought, ‘This is the guy they all told me about’. So I said, ‘OK, let me follow this guy’. He became my idol.”
Later, when he bought a mobile phone, he watched video compilations of Eto’o’s goals. He later became inspired by players such as Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku and Christian Benteke. He saw in their stories, as Black players who overcame challenging upbringings, a little of himself.
“It makes you think, ‘Maybe, just maybe, I can do it, too’. You never know.”
Beto was inspired by Samuel Eto’o, scoring here in the 2009 Champions League final for Barcelona (Mike Egerton – PA Images via Getty Images)
Beto’s beginnings in football were not conventional. He spent only one year in an elite academy before being released by Benfica at the age of 14. He then spent two years barely playing before making his start in senior football in the Portuguese amateur leagues.
“When I was at Benfica, I didn’t think about being a professional. I was afraid. I could feel and always knew I was not at their level. So when they released me, I said, ‘It’s OK with me. I’m not as good as I thought I was’. It was a reality check.
“I spent two years in no man’s land. I was doing stupid stuff — I wasn’t playing, I wasn’t studying… I was thinking I don’t care about the world. My mum took me out from football because I wasn’t behaving well in school.
“I have one thing in my mind from Benfica. I asked one guy, ‘Do you think you’re going to be professional?’. He said, ‘Yes, of course’. I was like, ‘F*****g hell, this guy is not afraid’. He said: ‘If I’m not professional here, I will be professional in another place’. I wasn’t thinking like that. I was afraid to say it.”
As Beto’s potential career teetered, he threw himself into earning money. He worked at KFC. “It was good. I always wanted to earn my own money. Until I was 15 or 16, I acted spoiled. I tried to have what my friends in school had and I didn’t have the awareness that my mum couldn’t afford things.
“My friend would say his dad paid for his driving licence, and I would go home and ask my mum for a driving licence. Now, with time, I see the things that my mum personally went through for me and my sisters.
“The first job I did was working in the woodland cutting the weeds. I did one month of work, they paid me €300. Every day, I was happy to go to work because I knew I would have my reward. I gave my mum some of it to help her pay the bills. She wanted me to go through college, but I told her I can’t go. It was too boring. I just didn’t have interest at all. I would go there and want to sleep. I said, ‘No, this is not for me’. One thing was sure; if I was not going to college, I would not be allowed to sit at home. I needed to put money in the house.”
Playing amateur football, he would work in the day and train at night, before playing games on a Sunday — his one day off.
“Every form of work is good to humble yourself,” he says, recalling the shifts at KFC. Beto played at amateur and lower-league levels for Uniao Tires and Olimpico Montijo before breaking into the top flight with Portimonense. He earned a move to Udinese in Serie A and then Everton.
Beto scored for Portimonense against Porto back in 2020 (Diogo Baptista/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Mum gave me discipline. She and my sister educated me, so I never went to the wrong side. I remember when I told her I want to make it as a professional. For me to have even been thinking about the Premier League is just like… You are kidding! I knew the minimum salary for a professional footballer in Portugal was €1,250. No one in our family earned a thousand. I just thought if I became professional, I can help pay the bills.
“Even in Italy, I never thought that I would go to England. But then Everton came! Everton of Lukaku! My mind was saying Lukaku played there, Eto’o played there. So if I could play in Everton, it would be a dream. I think I’m blessed.”
Beto is thoughtful about his unusual football education. “It helps me in some ways, but in some aspects of my game, I miss those basics that you learn when you are in an academy.
“It is the simplest things; passing one touch, receiving the ball, holding the ball. You learn these in professional academies because you do repetition, whereas at the smallest clubs like mine, we just go there, train, and it’s less specific.”
Moyes tells The Athletic that “the modern-day centre-half wants to be no-contact, but Beto wants to do things differently — he is running in behind, he’s a powerful, big boy, he’s got bits about him which you wouldn’t enjoy playing against”. He adds, “A lot of managers would say they’re always worried about Beto. His unpredictability for us… is certainly the same for the defenders as well.”
In Italy, Beto learned from other leading strikers. “The first time I saw aura was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. We drew 1-1, I scored and he scored. When I played against Lukaku, he recognised me. He said, ‘You are playing better, keep going’. I was very happy. I said, ‘Wow, I made it. These small things are really good for me’.”
Beto scoring for Udinese in 2021 (Alessio Marini/LiveMedia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Beto admits to finding his start to life at Everton challenging. “Everything was too physical,” he says. “The intensity killed me. I wasn’t playing well. I started losing confidence. Without confidence, I can’t do nothing. It was a tough season, but it was good to train my mind because it was stressful.
“I was going home and looking at my videos from Italy and saying, ‘But I can play football, why is it not working?’. You question yourself a lot and this is the worst part. It was a blessing, too, because I learned from that.”
Moyes says Beto’s determination stands out: “Every day we are saying, ‘Come on, will you come off the training ground?’. He really is trying to improve in everything he does.”
Beto says, “I care about training. It brings me fire. If training goes not so well, I want to do extra — just to feed myself a little.”
Beto has flourished under Moyes (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
In his first season, Beto struggled with the criticism he received on social media. “It was not easy. I used to (pay attention). If I or Everton posted a picture, I would go to the comments and they might say Beto was not good today. This is not good to read because you can be strong, but you’re going to create something in your subconscious by taking all the comments in. If you care about the criticism, whether it is good or bad, it can make you shake. The ego is a difficult thing to balance.”
Last summer, ahead of the new season, he worked overtime to prepare his body for the rigours of a full Premier League season. “If I get my fitness right for the Premier League, I think I can smash everyone. This was my mindset. I trained so hard in the off-season. The beginning of the season wasn’t the way I wanted. By the end, all the work that I put in paid off.”
The challenge now, as Everton seek to strengthen their forward line, is to do it all over again.
“I have a goal target, but that is personal. Nobody knows it — even the manager. I want to be a better player and goalscorer than I was last season.”
(Top photo: Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
